The Indians don't go to Toronto until the end of July, but manager Manny Acta warned his players Monday to act now if they had a criminal offense in the background that may keep them out of the Great White North.
Russell Branyan slides home ahead of the throw to score on Luis Valbuena's sixth-inning sacrifice fly Tuesday night against the White Sox.
INDIANS CHATTER
Clubhouse confidential: Mike Redmond, Fausto Carmona’s personal catcher, is not looking forward to interleague play after watching Carmona swing the bat Monday.
“I love Carmona to death, but I’m never going to get a pitch to hit,” said Redmond. “They’ll just walk me to face him.”
When asked to describe Carmona’s swing, Redmond laughed and said, “You know how some guys don’t even look good wearing a batting helmet?”
Carmona is 0-for-7 with four strikeouts in his career. Indians pitchers will be required to swing the bat June 18-27 when they play Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Cincinnati on the road.
Warming up: Manager Manny Acta, coming off off-season surgery on his right shoulder, threw batting practice before Tuesday.
“It’s about the fourth time I’ve thrown batting practice,” said Acta.
Stat of the day: The Indians' offense isn’t much to write home about. One of the best things they do is hit triples. They rank fifth in the AL, in a five-way tie, with seven.
— Paul HoynesCLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Indians don't play in Toronto until the end of July, but manager Manny Acta held a meeting before Monday night's game about that trip.
It concerned a memo sent to players and agents late last week by the MLB Players Association about a crackdown at the Canadian border on big-league players who are not Canadian citizens and have a past criminal record. These players can be detained at the border and in some cases not allowed into the country.
Acta said that every team that has played Toronto this season has had at least one player detained.
"It doesn't matter when the offense happened, they can detain you," said Acta. "We just wanted to let the players know that this can be handled by signing some documents."
This has always been the law in Canada, but the MLBPA memo said, "Canadian authorities have stepped up enforcement of these laws, resulting in several non-Canadian players traveling to Toronto with their teams being detained at the border because of a past criminal record."
The law, according to the memo, covers all offenses, no matter how small. The memo also said players might be risking their jobs if their teams didn't already know about their criminal record. The memo said for players to contact the union before telling their current teams of any past offenses.
Open season: Brad Grant, director of amateur scouting, says the Indians have no restrictions in selecting the fifth overall player June 7 in the first year player draft. It's the highest pick the Indians have had since 1992.
"We going to take the best player," said Grant. "Everyone is in play for us this year. We're not eliminating anyone."
That means position players or pitchers, be they high-school seniors or draft eligible college players, will be considered.
In the last four years, the fifth overall pick has been: 2009 RHP Matt Hobgood, Norco High School, Norco, Calif., $2.42 million signing bonus, Baltimore; 2008 C Buster Posey, Florida State, $6.2 million, San Francisco; 2007 C Matt Wieters, Georgia Tech, $6 million, Baltimore; 2006 RHP Brandon Morrow, University of California, $2.45 million, Seattle.
The Indians have not taken a high-school player with a No.1 pick since 2001.
The top two players in the draft are believed to be Bryce Harper, a 17-year-old junior college catcher, and high school right-hander Jameson Taillon. Washington, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Kansas City pick before the Indians.
Mock drafts in various publications have linked the Indians to Arkansas third baseman Zack Cox, University of Miami catcher Yasmani Grandal, Florida Gulf Coast left-hander Chris Sale, Florida high school shortstop Manny Machado and University of Mississippi lefty Drew Pomeranz. It's believed the Indians are still evaluating a group of 10 to 12 players, most of them pitchers.
Their scouts will come to Cleveland on Sunday to start final evaluations.
Sizemore tour: Grady Sizemore was in Vail, Col., Tuesday getting his left knee examined by Dr. Richard Steadman, a well-known knee surgeon. Sizemore is getting at least two opinions following an MRI in Cleveland last week after he bruised the knee diving back into first base on May 16 against Baltimore.
Sizemore originally injured the knee in April.
"They're looking at different ways to attack it," said Acta. "Not necessarily surgery.
"It doesn't have to be one type of the surgeries that are out there. Hopefully, he doesn't need any of them. We'll find out later this week."
Status quo: Acta said struggling right-hander Justin Masterson is expected to make his next start Sunday against the Yankees. He's 0-5 in nine starts this season. He's lost his last 11 decisions.